Polishing Marble

I'm so glad to be back to my regularly scheduled program.  Last week we had our floors polished and had been to lazy to reconnect the computer. I asked/begged my husband to do it for me, until I finally did it myself this morning at 6:00 a.m.  Here are some before pictures of our floors.  These floors were once mirror shiny.  You can see, especially in high traffic areas (like our kitchen), how dull they look.

Here's another dull spot.   

The first step in the process, is getting all of our belongings out of the way. Luckily the workers did this for us. An option that would have sped things up was placing everything outside, but as you can see the dull skies in the background, that was not an option.

Here are all our accessories.  I had prepped this myself the night before.

 Look at this craziness. 

So basically, the first step of the process is they strip or take away a hair thick layer of the marble.  They use a cleaner, water, a salty like substance, and a grinder (not sure the name of the machine).  You can see here the floor completely stripped.

They spot treat any holes or imperfections.  They then use the polishing machine with another polishing liquid.  Here you can see where he has placed the liquid.  Then they put a sealer and then buff the floors to get maximum shine.

 Here you can see the start of shine.

I took these pictures this morning and the sun hasn't really come out yet, so you can't get the whole effect. (I'll update the pictures later today).  This is the same spot as the first picture.

You can see the furniture, vases, and art reflected in the floor.  When the sun is out, you can see the trees, as well.

The difference is huge.  The house feels so much cleaner.  The floors feel brand new again.  We had this process done 8 years ago and it should really be done every 3 years.  The company was great and a team of 3-4 guys worked for 12 hours straight.   It was a long day.  I took advantage that I was home and organized papers in our office and cleaned out those corners in the house you never get to.  It feels so good to cross something off the list.

Vacuuming and Napping

About 8 years ago, we had our floors done.  Our house had the original Terrazzo floors, which we thought about polishing up and keeping.  However, they were pretty much unfixable.  My husband's friend convinced us to install 24 by 24 marble.  We went out shopping and loved it.  We bought Crema Selecta marble and a pretty decent price.  We had it installed and polished.  Wow, our floors were like mirrors.  We vowed that day that we would have our floors polished every year.  We did so the first year...and never again.  Marble is a pretty delicate floor, spill something on it and get to wiping quick and dust and dirt plus walking equals dull, lifeless floors.  That's were we are right now.  There is NO shine left. 

Since I've been on this major getting the house fixed up phase, I'm having my floors polished today.  I'm ecstatic.  My husband agreed, but on one condition, I must vacuum daily.  Umm. Yea, that's not me.  My floors get vacuumed and cleaned every Thursday when the house gets cleaned.  There is only two of us and not a lot of traffic.  So guess what I got.

The iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver and can I tell you that I'm in love. Like real love.  Like I have him scheduled to go off everyday and when it starts I actually feel a little butterfly in my stomach.  Is that normal. Is it normal that I have found myself talking to it.  It's like I'm cleaning my house and I'm sitting on the computer or laying on the couch or maybe even napping.  Well actually, the first day it started, I found myself lying on the floor watching it under furniture and following it room to room to see what it did.  As I'm typing this, I promise you I'm not nuts, promise.  

I've had it for a week and I'm really liking it.  It does make it around the house to every room.  It's weird how it goes into a room, leaves, and goes back to it again after.  It really does vacuum and it does a good job at it.  I've had places in my house vacuumed that I'm sure nobody has touched in years.  Our kitchen cabinets are on legs and it actually gets under the cabinets.  Woo hoo.   The best part about it, it docks itself when the house is done.  I don't even have to worry about that.  Love I tell you.